Philosophy of Biological Functions

Zdenka Brzović is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, and in the Division of Cognitive Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia. Her interests lie at the intersection of science and philosophy, focusing on philosophical questions related to biology, medicine, and the life sciences more broadly. She has recently co-authored and authored several articles on scientific classifications in the life sciences and the notion of function in biology, and specifically in genome biology.Justin Garson is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA. He has authored several books and articles on the nature of biological functions, including A Critical Overview of Biological Functions (2016), What Biological Functions Are and Why They Matter (2019) and, with Harriet Fagerberg, Biological Functions (forthcoming). He also writes on philosophy of psychiatry and mental health.Predrag Šustar is Professor in Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Rijeka, Croatia. His research primarily focuses on topics in philosophy of science, relating to biology and the life sciences, more generally. He has recently co-authored and authored several articles in the biological functions debate, including a co-edited volume with John McMillan and Luca Malatesti, Psychopathy: Its Uses, Validity and Status (2022). He also writes on history and philosophy of science, with particular emphasis on Kant.

• List of Contributors Editors’ Introduction Zdenka Brzović, Justin Garson, and Predrag Šustar Part 1: A Historical Overview 1. Function and Teleology in the Twentieth Century Justin Garson Part 2: Theories of Function 2. Etiological Theories Harriet Fagerberg 3. Causal Role Theories Marcel Weber 4. Fitness Contribution Theories Paul E. Griffiths 5. Organizational Theories Cristian Saborido, Charbel N. El-Hani, and Alvaro Moreno 6. Modal Theory Fabian Hundertmark 7. Good Contribution Theories Peter McLaughlin 8. Early Organicist Theories Joan Steigerwald 9. Kinds of Pluralism Beckett Sterner Part 3: Functions across Levels of Biological Organization 10. Functions in Ecology Katie H. Morrow 11. Functions in Molecular Biology Zdenka Brzović and Predrag Šustar 12. Functions in Neuroscience Joseph McCaffrey 13. Functions in Biomedicine John Matthewson 14. Functions in Psychiatry Jerome C. Wakefield Part 4: Functions in the Human World 15. Functions and Artifacts Françoise Longy 16. Functions in Social Institutions Frank Hindricks 17. Functions and Mental Representation Peter Schulte 18. Functions in Epistemology Ema Sullivan-Bissett 19. Functions in Ethics Parisa Moosavi 20. Functions in Conceptual Engineering Amie Thomasson. Index